Bellator Fighting Championships kicks off its seventh season this week. Officials are excited about the final 12-week run on MTV2, but they're also looking ahead to a move to the larger Spike TV next year.

Viacom, the parent company of both channels, acquired Bellator a year ago, and that set in motion the upcoming move to Spike TV.

But first the tournament-based MMA promotion returns to MTV2 on Friday in Atlantic City, N.J., with the sold-out Bellator 74 (8 p.m. ET). The seventh season, which includes a three-month run of weekly events, features eight-man tournaments in the featherweight, lightweight, welterweight and heavyweight divisions. Up for grabs is $100,000 in winnings and guaranteed title shots.

This season brings an influx of Russian talent thanks to Bellator's continued international expansion. Russian fighters Andrey Koreshkov (who's part of the welterweight tourney that kicks off Friday) and Alexander Sarnavskiy boast undefeated records and train with two-time Bellator tourney champ Alexander Shlemenko, who is also Russian. Both fighters have been featured prominently by state-run Russia 2, a new broadcast partner that helps put Bellator programming in 87 countries.

"Russia is going to be the new Brazil for Bellator," said Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney, comparing Russia to its fight-crazed and lucrative counterpart.

Despite some active competition – some would say skirmishing – for talent with industry leader UFC and the upstart World Series of Fighting, Rebney said the pool of available fighters for Season 7 remains deep.

"I think part of that is because Bellator has gotten bigger, and the Spike TV alliance and the Viacom acquisition have opened up a lot of doors with us," he said.

"With the demise of the WECs and Afflictions (now-defunct MMA promotions), and with all the troubles that Strikeforce is having, there are less and less alternatives. Now there are only two. There's still a huge number of world-class fighters around the world who are looking for a place with huge television alliances to ply their trade."